Reporter to Sean Spicer: 'Does the president have a thing' for totalitarian leaders?

New York
Times reporter Glenn Thrush asked Sean Spicer on Monday whether
President Donald Trump "has a thing" for "totalitarian leaders"
amid the president's recent outreach to leaders with
authoritarian reputations, like the Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte.

Trump's willingness to engage with some of the world's most
notorious strongmen was on full display last weekend, when he
extended two invitations to Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte
and Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha. Both the
Philippines and Thailand enjoy treaties with the US, but their
leaders' brutal crackdowns on drugs and dissent have marred their
relationships with the West.

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Duterte's merciless anti-drug campaign has left more than 7,000
people dead since he took office in late June 2016, according to
the Filipino news site Rappler. Nearly 3,000 have
died at the hands of police. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un,
meanwhile, operates secretive prison camps where suspected
dissidents are tortured, starved, and forced into hard labor.
North Korea has repeatedly threatened to attack its neighbors -
and, ultimately, the US - with nuclear weapons.

Last month, Trump called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
whom many in the West view as a creeping authoritarian, to
congratulate him on winning a referendum that looks to
dramatically expand his presidential power. And on Monday, Trump
said he would be "honored" to meet with North Korean leader Kim
Jong Un over his country's nuclear weapons program if the
circumstances were right.

"Does the president have a thing with these totalitarian
leaders?" Thrush asked during a press conference. "Does he admire
something about the way these guys conduct themselves?"

Spicer replied that Trump "understands the threat North Korea
poses" but that Kim Jong Un is "still a head of state, so there
is a diplomatic" consideration there. Spicer said later that
Trump is trying to "balance" appropriate criticism of these
countries' human rights practices with his desire to "get real
results" by working with them.

"There is a lot that this president talks to these leaders in
private about," Spicer said, adding that "building a
relationship" with those leaders in private is often "better for
achieving results" overall.

"It is a mistake to assume that because we don't put out
statements publicly chastising leaders at every call" that the
president doesn't care about these issues, Spicer said. "The
president understands the type of negotiating, the type of
deal-making, the type of results that get real results."